Static vs Dynamic QR Codes
What the redirect actually buys you, measured on real encoded codes, and which payloads are worse off for it.
16 min readScan it and a new message opens, already addressed, with the subject and body you wrote. Nothing sends until the person presses send.
Fill in the subject. A code that opens a blank message is the one people close, and the subject is the cheapest field here.
Your code appears here as you type.
Everything you prefill goes inside the code. The address is a few dozen characters; a paragraph of body text is several hundred, and that pushes the symbol up through versions until it needs to be printed noticeably larger to stay readable.
Here is the same address four ways, with the exact link each one produces and the smallest width it survives at.
| What you enter | What the scanner reads | Version | Modules | Print at least |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address onlyOpens a blank message. Smallest possible code. | mailto:hello@example.com24 characters | 2 | 33 | 13.2 mm |
| Address and subjectThe version that actually gets sent, because the sender knows what to say. | mailto:hello@example.com?subject=Table%201243 characters | 3 | 37 | 14.8 mm |
| Subject and a short bodyA form in an email. Three prompts is about where this stays practical. | mailto:hello@example.com?subject=Repair%20request&body=Unit%20number%3A%0AProblem%3A%0ABest%20time%20to%20call%3A113 characters | 7 | 53 | 21.2 mm |
| Subject and a paragraphWhere the idea stops being free. Compare the last column to the first row. | mailto:hello@example.com?subject=Booking%20enquiry&body=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20to%20ask%20about%20availability%20for%20a%20table%20on%20a%20weekend%20evening%20in%20the%20next%20month%2C%20for%20a%20party%20of%20six%20people%2C%20and%20whether%20you%20can%20seat%20us%20outside.285 characters | 12 | 73 | 29.2 mm |
The practical reading: a subject is close to free, a three-line prompt is affordable, and a written-out paragraph is not. If you need people to send you a lot of structured information, a form behind a short link stays small no matter how many questions you ask.
A mailto link is a request for the phone's default mail app. If there is one, the draft opens. If there is not, nothing happens, and the person scanning has no idea why. That is common on phones where mail is read in a browser tab rather than an app, and it is not something a generator can fix, because the behaviour belongs to the phone.
So print the address as text next to the code. It costs one line and it is the difference between a dead end and a slower route. The same rule applies to the phone and SMS codes.
Their phone opens a new message with the address already filled in, plus the subject and body if you set them. Nothing is sent until they press send. On iPhone that means Mail, on Android it means whichever mail app is set as default.
A mailto link needs a mail app installed and set as the default handler. Somebody who reads mail only in a browser tab often has no default, so the link opens nothing. If the code is going somewhere public, put the address underneath as text so there is always a way through.
Yes, and you should fill in at least the subject. A code that opens an empty message usually gets abandoned. Both go inside the code, so keep the body short: the table on this page shows a paragraph adding several millimetres to the smallest size you can print at.
No. Blind copy is blind to the people who receive the mail, not to the person sending it. Anyone who scans the code sees the bcc address in the draft before they send, and any scanner app shows the raw link. The tool warns about this when you add one.
It depends entirely on what you prefilled. The tool prints the minimum width under the preview, calculated from the module count at roughly 0.4mm per module. An address on its own is comfortably smaller than the same address carrying a prefilled paragraph.
Contact cards, Wi-Fi, and forms people fill in.
What the redirect actually buys you, measured on real encoded codes, and which payloads are worse off for it.
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